Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Indiana for the recognition. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of a bill that includes coverage for immunosuppressive drugs after a kidney transplant. This is something we have worked on for a decade but, more importantly, for kidney patients and their families, this has been a priority for much, much longer. Madam Speaker, today's bill is monumental in the life of the transplant patient. In 1972, Congress voted to allow Medicare coverage for end-stage renal disease patients under 65 years of age. The policy opened the doors for patients to have Medicare pay for dialysis and kidney transplants, but it wasn't quite enough. A new kidney gives the hope of a better quality of life to patients, but only if they take those immunosuppressive drugs. Otherwise, their own immune system is going to recognize the renal graft as a foreign object and reject it, but that is their new kidney. So without these drugs, patients risk rejection of a kidney and a return to dialysis. Now, Medicare, to be sure, will pay for that return to dialysis and another renal transplant--if they are lucky enough to get one--but it will not pay for more than 36 months of immunosuppressive drug coverage. This is incredibly expensive for the Medicare system, but think of the toll on the lives of kidney patients and their families.…”